Some thoughts…from Allen Fieldhouse

Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer

“Nice game for the Jayhawks and the fans who turned out on a snowy day. Arthur and Jackson I thought were great and Brandon did a nice job defensively. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

“Miami of Ohio’s only shot at competing was to control the tempo, milk each possession, make it tough for Kansas to score. Sherron Collins, looking quicker than at any time since returning from his foot injury, didn’t let that happen and neither did anyone else.”

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

“Darrell Arthur seems to have put away the long range jumper as of late and is doing what he does best – bolting his feet to the ground inside, taking a feed, spinning and shooting from close range. Arthur and Darnell Jackson were again sensational inside for KU, combining for 28 points and 18 rebounds.”

Inside the numbers

78: KU, as you may have heard by now, became the first team in 45 tries to score 70-plus points on Miami. The RedHawks tried to make that streak stick today more by draining the clock with long offensive possessions rather than get too risky on defense. It backfired on both ends. KU shot at a 57.9 percent clip, while Miami’s lengthy possessions tended to come up empty.

14: That was the magic number for KU’s starting big men, as Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson each scored 14 points. The Jayhawks were able to gain separation on the scoreboard early by feeding the two in the post, plus Sasha Kaun off the bench.

6: KU was again efficient on the offensive end, recording 17 assists on 33 field goals and turning the ball over just six times. On the flip side, the Jayhawks forced 14 RedHawk giveaways.

23: The Jayhawks were outrebounded 34-29 Tuesday night in Atlanta, though that stat was a bit misleading, since foul trouble involving Arthur and Jackson kept KU with a smaller lineup on the floor for most of the night. Saturday, there was no doubt left. The Jayhawks outrebounded the RedHawks 32-26, including 23 defensive rebounds.

Just in case you missed it…

Sherron Collins continues to take steps back to full strength since returning from his stress fracture surgery on his foot. After helping clinch the win at Georgia Tech, he had on Saturday a nifty dish to Darrell Arthur while muscling to the hoop, created an open court layin for himself and also casually stroked a three. He’s not there yet, but closer.

Hopefully you didn’t miss it…

The offense continues to be well-spread for KU, as Bill Self’s claim that no one on his team might have good enough stats to be a first team All-American looks more and more true by the game. And that’s not a bad thing. Again in this one, four Jayhawks registered in double figures in the point column while nine players saw double digits in the minutes category.

They said it…

Bill Self on how his team broke the 70-point barrier on Miami: “We were crisper offensively than what we’ve been. We had a lot of assists and only six turnovers. Russell had two of those in about 15 seconds. But we did have some crisp possessions offensively, which was good. We needed to play through our big guys some more, and we did that today.”

Bill Self on completing a crucial three-game non-conference stretch: “I thought it was. We’ll find out if we are able to build off of it and get better. I told our guys, after finals, Ohio, Georgia Tech, Miami were the three key games of our preseason even though we have three more coming up. I felt like those were the three back-to-back-to-back in a seven-day period that would probably determine if we had a successful out-of-conference season. I thought we played pretty well for the most part. You take away the last three minutes, last two minutes at Georgia Tech, we controlled all the games pretty much from start to finish.”

Bill Self on the upcoming holiday break: “I will say this, I’ve had teams not play well going into Christmas, and make coming back after Christmas a dreaded deal, whereas this time, they won’t be happy coming back, but it won’t be because of basketball – it’ll be because they wish they could spend more time with their families.

Brandon Rush on ending Miami’s defensive streak: “We took a lot of pride in that. We were just trying to get in there and just run them. They’re the type of team that likes to slow it down and run their offense until the end of the shot clock. We took them out of that, we pressured out and made them have a lot of turnovers.”

Brandon Rush on Darrell Arthur staying truer to the post on offense: “Yeah, we’ve noticed that. We told him about that: ‘Just shoot over everybody.’ He’s 6-9, athletic, he can jump out of the gym, so he can get a shot off anytime he wants to. Just the jump shot isn’t working right now, so we just pound it down low.”

Russell Robinson on Miami’s defense: “I’m a little surprised that a lot of guys don’t get 70 more often, because I really don’t think they pressure that much in the halfcourt. We got the ball where we wanted it, we got the shots that we wanted.”